Pawn to Queen
by fanaticbychoice
Summary: Sarah is missing, and there is only one lead - the name Jareth. Toby makes it his mission to find his sister, but he is going to find more than just Sarah. Try the labyrinth, powerplays, political coups, stolen crystals, and one conniving Goblin King. (Yes, although Toby is the main character, there is still Jareth/Sarah chemistry.)
1. Chapter 1

Hi,

So I'm dusting off the part of my brain that makes me write, trying to get back into the habit, and I've come up with this little fanfic. I've written things I'm not completely proud of, but who hasn't when you're in middle school? I decided to post this because there's not enough love for this movie out there. I'm open to any feedback, constructive criticism is welcome. Special thanks to my beta, Pen Against Sword, without her the story would be as enjoyable as open Mic. night with your tone deaf ex. Hope it fills your Labyrinth needs!

Fanatic by Choice.

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It was midnight when Toby was brought in for questioning. The police station was buzzing with excitement--finally a possible break in the case. If something didn't happen soon, it would be all their asses. It wasn't every day a young woman turned up missing in a town this small.

Outside the questioning room, Detective Furman whispered with Sheriff Johnson."The way I look at it, there's two possible answers. A stranger was passing through town, and he's to blame. Or more likely, an accident happened with someone she knew."

"My bets are the brother knows something." Sheriff Johnson looked intensely at the young boy sitting on the other side of the two-way mirror. "He looked a little shifty when we first searched the house..."

His hair was ruffled from pulling off his beanie. The florescent light above him made the circles under his blue eyes twice as dark. He looked like he had been through hell, and indeed he had. He reminded them of a mouse, caught in a trap, looking around the room helplessly for something familiar. Something to tell him everything was all right. Something to comfort him. Once he exhausted his search he gave up and cradled his tired head in his hands. Just as he was about to drift to sleep, the detective and sheriff walked with a swagger into the room.

The detective took a seat across from Toby and gave a slight nod to greet the boy. The Sherif stayed standing next to the detective, trying to get in character for the "good cop and bad cop" routine. A tape recorder rested in the middle of the cold steel table. Detective Furman pressed the small red button on the device and the recorder jumped to power, clicking as it reeled.

"This is the questioning of Toby Williams, Friday, October thirteenth, nineteen ninety-five." Detective Furman's voice rang clearly throughout the room.

Toby was on the edge of panic. He was a genuinely good kid. Never called to the principal's office, served detention maybe once in his school career, but now he was in a questioning room, a suspect of his sister's disappearance.

"Toby, do you know what happened to your sister one week ago?" Sheriff Johnson leaned over the table. A faint smell of Marlboro cigarettes crept into Toby's senses.

"No." He figured straight-forward answers were best.

"When was the last time you saw your sister, Sarah Williams?" Detective Furman was a patient man who didn't have the heart to scare the people he questioned. He let the Sheriff take care of that.

"Last Sunday night, when she came home for family dinner." He swallowed.

"Did she seem upsetor distressed over anything?" Sheriff Johnson rolled his eyes at Furman's ease. The detective's slow questioning always annoyed him.

"No, she--"

"What about when you two started arguing?" Johnson interrupted.

"Huh?" Toby was honestly confused by this question.

"The neighbors say that you two were arguing as she was leaving. They overheard you in the yard." Furman leaned back in his chair, relaxing, hoping Toby would do the same.

Toby thought for a moment.

"Oh, yes, it was a petty argument. I didn't think anything of it afterwards." He shrugged.

"What was the argument about?"

"She said it cost too much to drive home once a week to visit us. That she wanted to start coming once a month to dinner instead."

"And who is...Jareth?" Detective Furman was shuffling the reports the neighbors had filed. "Some of the neighbors heard her mention his name after your argument."

Jareth? The name rang a bell.

"Someone who scared her." Once again, Toby told the truth.

Both his elders shifted. They hadn't they exchanged glances, Detective Furman seemed to read Johnson's mind. Was it a decoy? Was this Jareth the culprit?

"Do you know Jareth's last name?" Furman was ready with his pen.

"No." Toby solemnly shook his head. Dead end.

"Why did he scare her, son?" For some reason being called son by the Sheriff sounded like an insult. The word had double purposes for the Sheriff.

"I don't know, she rarely mentioned him." Toby was tottering on the brink of truths and lies.

"And when was that?"

_"_When I was younger she would have night terrors a lot. I remember she would yell that name when she was kicking around in her sleep. She never told me who he was, though. I always assumed it was some monster."

"Has anyone else heard of this Jareth? Do any of her friends know him?" Furman was frustrated with the missing information.

"Maybe her roommate. Possibly Dad, more possibly Mom." He thought back to all the times he had gone into her room when he heard her crying at night. He would try try to be a caring sibling and check on his sister, but his Mother would send him to his room as she soothed Sarah back to sleep.

"Toby, if you're saying this Jareth did it--"

"I never said that," Toby caught the Sheriff in mid sentence.

"You said she was scared of him." Johnson furrowed his brow.

"Yes, but that was a long time ago," Toby replied.

"Toby, do you know that we have one piece of evidence that points to you?" Johnson was about to get down to the part he loved best.

"I suppose you must to have me hererather than someone else," Toby carefully replied, trying to not sound disrespectful.

"Mhm. We do, and you know what it is?" Furman seemed uncomfortable, watching the Sheriff begin what he called "The Spanish Inquisition" part of the process.

Toby shook his head.

"Does this look familiar to you?"

Johnson walked to the door and reached into the next room. He slowly came back with an object from Toby's past. It was Toby's old neon-green skateboard. He hadn't used it since he was ten.

"I used to ride that around town, before they were banned." Toby recalled the large debate a year ago over skateboard use. Finally, after seven yeas and nine nays, skateboards were banned in the town's square. A hefty fine was handed out to all who defied the law, followed by a steaming heap of community service.

"This was in the woods, two miles from where Sarah's car was found. Now why is that?" The vein in Sheriff Johnson's head began to stand out.

"I'm not sure. It was stolen from the back porch not too long ago." Toby's eyes flicked back and forth between the two men interrogating him.

"Toby." The Sheriff paused. "You tellin' the truth, son?"

"Yes," he sighed, feeling emotionally exhausted.

"Because if you're not we'll find out. And when we do, there's going to be hell to pay. There's something going on, and I think you know more than what you're saying." Sheriff Johnson's eyes were fixed on Toby's unwavering face.

"All right Toby, we're going to let you go. But there's going to be a strict watch on your house. When you want to talk to us, call. Day or need to know what happened." Furman softened his voice, trying to make Toby feel like they were on the same side.

"Are my parents here?" Toby awkwardly put his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, they're up front waiting for you." Furman began to gather the files he had brought in with him.

"Can I go?" Toby began to stand and fidget.

"Yes, Deputy Rae will take you to them." Sheriff Johnson opened the door and a tall, slender woman walked over to Toby's side.

As Toby and Deputy Rae walked to the front of the station, Toby tried to make sense of the whirl wind of events. He had been at the library when he first heard the news that his sister went missing and had rushed home to find police searching the house. Since then, he had noticed a steady stream of eyes keeping watch on him. He was known as a loner, so didn't have anyone to confirm his alibi. He was confused by these new questions that held answers to his sister's disappearance. Who was this Jareth guy? Toby had a gut feeling that he had been the cause of all this trouble and if he found Jareth, he would find his sister. But whether she was dead or alive, he wasn't completely sure.

Toby found his parents at the police desk, yelling and demanding that they be taken to him at once. They insisted he had nothing to do with his sister's disappearance as the secretary tried to pacify the couple and keep them from walking into the restricted area.

His mother looked up from the heated argument. Her eyes went wide and her face relaxed. They went from "I'm going to kill this receptionist" to a worried "Oh my god, my daughter is still missing." He dragged himself over to his parents and was almost knocked down by his mother's hug.

"Toby, I'm so glad you're all right!" She buried her face into his jacket.

His father joined in the hug, keeping Toby from falling under his mother's weight.

"I don't know what we'd do if we lost you too." his father whispered.

At that moment, Toby decided he would go find his sister. And the truth.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few days, Toby was trapped in his house. If he went out, the cops were there. Watching him. Waiting for him to do something. They claimed that they were keeping the press away from the family, but Toby was sure they had another agenda. He desperately needed to go to the last place Sarah was seen, but that would be suspicious. Just as cabin fever began to set in, Toby got a brilliant idea. He stared at the mirror, his golden locks were a dead give away to his identity miles away. They rolled and stuck defiantly out of his hats, no matter which one he chose. Going incognito was going to be a tricky feat.

It was evening when his friend Marcus arrived to see how he was coping. Both were misfits in school, but Marcus liked to assert his ability to not fit in. Over the summer he had dyed his hair black, acquired three facial peircings, and began to wear shirts promoting metal bands. During the winter, when everyone wore bright neon jackets, he opted for his dad's old leather jacket, from his days in a small town less-than-rowdy motorcycle gang.

Marcus snuck in and tiptoed up the stairs to Toby's room, attempting to not disturb Toby's parents. They had enough to worry about without trying to play host to Toby's company.

"Hey Tobe." Marcus plopped down on the bed behind Toby's desk chair. "What's up with the car load of pigs outside your house?"

"That's what your parent's tax dollars are paying for these days," Toby dryly said looking over his shoulder.

"What'd you do rob a bank?"

Silence filled the air after Marcus' failed attempt at a joke.

"Yes, you should stop spending time with your family. They're rubbing off on you." Toby rolled his eyes and swung the chair around.

"Look, I need your help," Toby started.

"Sure, what can I do you for?" Marcus jumped up, ready to help his friend, who was clearly in need.

"They think I have something to do with my sister's disappearance, or that I at least know more than I'm telling. " Toby explained.

"What? No way, you'd never do anything like that." The idea of Toby hurting a fly was something Marcus couldn't conceive. He refused to kill spiders for God sakes! He couldn't hurt his own flesh and blood! He wasn't the kind to just sit and watch someone else get hurt either.

"That's why I need your help, I need to figure out what happened to her, so I can completely clear my name." Toby let out a deep breath.

"So, we're going to play Hardy Boys?" Marcus looked excited about something, for once in his "dark" freshmen existence.

"Yes. But I need your help getting out of this house."

"It's pretty easy to spot you Goldie Locks, how do you suggest we do that?" It was clear Marcus tended to deal with bad situations by making bad jokes.

"Well, you've been wanting to change my hair color..." Toby trailed off.

"Whoa, whoa whoa! Do you really think it's the best time for that? If I do that your 'rents will flip, they'll never let me back in your house!"

"Marcus," Toby gave him a pleading look. "I need you to make me look like you, so I can leave the house, and you can take my place."

Marcus stood up. His forehead creased as he thought about the plan.

"Do you have any hunches yet on what happened to your sister?" Marcus asked, toying around with the base ball on Toby's dresser.

"Yes..." Toby looked distressed.

"I mean...no." Still confused, Toby took out a note book and looked at the frustrating list of clues he composed earlier that day.

"All I have is that my skateboard that had been stolen a week ago was found near her disappearance. Her car was found in Ridge Road Park, in the opposite direction of her college from here. Her purse and possessions were found in the car, no money stolen. I also have a name." Toby looked shakily at the bare list of facts he had.

"A name?" Marcus was interested. "Who?"

"Jareth." Toby didn't like thinking about that name. Much less saying it.

"Is that her boyfriend?"

"No."

"Friend?"

"No."

"Who is he?" Marcus was as confused as Toby now.

"I don't know. Just a name right now."

Marcus rolled the base ball along the top of the dresser and thought quietly to himself. Would he be tied in as a suspect if he helped? How would Toby's parents handle the sudden, but drastic, change in Toby's hair? Just as he was about to refuse his services, he looked at Toby. It was clear Toby wasn't holding up well, that this thing, this situation, was getting to him.

"Okay," Marcus took a deep breath. "I'll do it. But we'd better not get caught."

"That's the LAST thing I want to do," Toby agreed with a sigh of relief.

"I'll be back noon tomorrow with all the stuff," Marcus walked to the door.

"Oh, and Toby?"

"Yeah?"

"You look like hell, get some sleep." Marcus added as he closed Toby's door.

"Thanks man, thanks," Toby murmured to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning came after a fitful sleep. Toby woke to the smell of eggs and bacon, the regular Sunday morning breakfast, but had to convince himself to go down to the table. He didn't like spending long amounts time with his parents. He always felt anxious with them, like they were sitting around waiting for news on his sister. He nervously over chewed his food, trying to act as normal as possible, to not give away the plotting that had began the previous evening.

"Son, are you okay?" his father had picked up that something was different about Toby today.

He nodded, shoving a fork full of eggs in his mouth.

"Look, I know this is hard." his father wasn't normally one for heart to hearts. "But you gotta be strong for Sarah."

"For Sarah," Toby repeated.

The look of sadness in his father's eyes almost killed him. He wanted to tell him, to promise him that he would figure out what happened to Sarah. If she was dead or alive. If she left willingly or if it was force. Toby wasn't sure what would be worse for his parents to hear. That their daughter was attacked by a crazed lunatic or she didn't want to be a part of their family anymore. He couldn't imagine either answer actually being the truth.

The rest of the day, Toby was busy trying to prepare for the trip outside. He had prepped his bathroom for the attempt at bleaching his hair and the dying of it. Just as Toby was taking out the shower mat in the tub, Marcus bust into the room.

"Alright, got the bleach, got the dye, now where's the head?" Marcus dumped an arm full of hair products into the sink.

"What's up with you and bad jokes?" Toby was pretty sure these failed jokes were his sad attempts at trying to make Toby feel better.

"Hey! It's not mine this time!" Marcus held up his hands defensively. "The guy who did my hair said that!"

"Was he gay by any chance?" Toby's eyebrow lifted.

"What? No. It's perfectly okay for a straight man to tell another straight man his hair is sexier when it's spiked." Marcus' face turned the same shade of red as Toby's bathroom towels.

"Before or after you tipped him?"

Marcus hesitated.

"Before."

Toby laughed lightly to himself.

"Okay, so let's get this over and done with." He picked up a box and began to read the instructions.

Marcus stood to the side, stifling a giggle.

"What?" Toby looked annoyed at him.

"That's what she said!" Marcus bust into full fledged laughter.

"Shut up." Marcus' silliness and slow pace were wearing on Toby's nerves.

By the time the dye was working it's way to Toby's roots, Toby was sitting on the toilet seat, biting his knuckles with his face into a pillow.

"Christ, this hurts!"

"What did you expect? This is the way all the punk kids do it. Come on, be a man." Marcus realized he crossed the line of encouragement and was starting to insult Toby. "Do it for Sarah."

Toby swallowed his pain and Marcus helped him take the tin foil out of his hair. Once that was accomplished, they set to dying and then drying Toby's hair. If he wanted to go out before dark, they knew they had to hurry.

"Okay, look in the mirror," Marcus pulled the towel off of Toby's halfway damp hair.

Toby looked into the mirror. He no longer looked like a sweet angelic angel, he looked like his name could be Frank, and he was part of Hell's Angels. The freshly dyed black hair that framed his face didn't go with the knit sweater that his mother had bought him for Christmas.

"If you wanna pass as me, we're going to have to trade clothes. I wouldn't be caught dead in that Wally Cleaver sweater." Marcus began to take his black long sleeve shirt off.

"I don't know it matches your eyes man," Toby laughed.

"Yeah? Who's making bad jokes now?" Marcus was relieved to see his friend laughing again.

Toby snuck out of the house with ease. He left Marcus to his secret Oreo stash and comic books in his room. The police didn't even question that this was Marcus leaving. They stayed fixed out in front of the house, watching the small tv in the squad car.

After passing Maple street, Hurst, and Oak, Toby finally came to the state park that was where Sarah's car was found. He visited the scene once with his parents, the day the car was found. There was no sign of car trouble or an accident. It was just...there. Next to the road.

Toby didn't know what he was looking for, but he surveyed the site. He kicked over a few leaves, moved some tree branches, pushed a rock or two, but didn't see anything. He was beginning to think Sarah really did leave on her own. If she had been kidnaped she would have left a clue...something so they would know. She was smart like that.

Toby sighed and began to walk back home, so Marcus could be home for dinner on time. Not to mention the fact that he had to get home before his parents discovered him gone.

As he made his way down the new gravel road, he spied something in the leaves. It was small, obviously, but something golden glittered. He carefully approached it and began moving the leaves.

"It's just a stupid ol' book," he said, highly disappointed.

The front of the book, in golden inked letters spelled out the title "Labyrinth." It had clearly seen it's share of use. The pages were bent, slightly soggy, even some were ripped. He opened the book and flipped through it. A few of the words were underlined in black pen.

"Goblin King," he read the words out loud as his stomach lurched.

On the last few pages of the book, a giant circle pointed out a small phrase underlined, like the name of the book's villain.

"You have no power over me," Toby wasn't sure about the book, but he liked that phrase. He felt slightly more comfortable. He began to rush home to show Marcus this strange find in the woods. Was it evidence? Was it just something someone threw out of the car? He had to know.


	4. Chapter 4

Toby flipped on the lights and scanned the room. It was as if a museum had crept up in the middle of the night, a museum focusing on Sarah as the subject. Calm and organized, each object sat on display in it's usual place as Toby began his search. He started with her desk. Old photos play bills, and sticky notes littered the sides of her mirror. Toby took a moment to pause and inspect the photos. One was Sarah performing in a high school production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream." Another was Sarah and Toby playing in the snow, the first year that Toby could really comprehend what snow was and that you could throw balls of it. He began to read the sticky notes. Some were notes her friends had left; others seemed to be lyrics and quotes from a generation Toby did not grow up in.

"Break a leg!—Jack"

"Wonderful job in "Our Town"!—Ms. Helstrum"

"Daylight licked me into shape, must have been asleep for days, and moving lips to breathe her name, I opened up my eyes."

"Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I shall be your slave."

A slight chill crept up Toby's spine as he read the last of the post it notes. It was the quote from the book he had found in the woods spoken by the villain.

He shuffled through her drawers, turning pink to find secret weapons that only girls use. The contents of the drawers steadily got worse: candy, to make up, to feminine products. He quickly shut each drawer as soon as he had opened it. He repeated this procedure with her clothing drawers, trying his best not to pay attention to the girly things he found at the bottom drawer.

Toby began to feel it was hopeless. There was no clue for him to find, just a bunch of old stale memories. As he reached to turn the light out and leave, something stopped him. Memories. He began to think of how little he knew his sister. He never was very close to her, partially because of their age difference, but also because she was guarded. Sarah never let anyone in, not even her parents. He knew that they did not share the same mother, her mother had died in a car accident, but she never confided in her father, stepmother, or Toby. Toby went to her nightstand and opened the drawer. It was a little hard to open but after a few seconds of jostling, it practically fell out. What fell with it was just what Toby had been looking for. Her diary.

Sarah didn't hide the fact that she kept a diary but liked to keep her thoughts private by hiding it in her nightstand. Toby recalled seeing her stowing it away many times, but always respected her wishes for it to stay there.

"Sorry Sarah, but I've gotta know."

He leafed through the small purple-paged book. The dates inside were sporadic, dating back several years. From the beginning he scanned the pages of what he thought to be "girl thoughts" until he came to a page that caught his attention. It was the first time she mentioned Jareth.

"October 12th, 198-

Last night I made a terrible mistake. I let my temper get the best of me (yet again) and accidentally wished Toby away. I don't know if it was a dream or not but the second _he_ showed up, I knew I was in trouble. I immediately regretted my foolish decision and faced the consequences. I beat that terrible…man…wizard…Goblin King at his own game. While I do miss my friends in the Labyrinth, I wish I had never went there. I wish I had never knew it existed. I wish I never met Jarreth."

"October 20th, 198-

I know it's foolish to cry so much, but I can't help it. While I defeated the Goblin King, I am not sure what his fate was. Death? Or exile? I dream about him. I dream I have lost Toby for good and I am his slave. I wish he would stop haunting me."

"November 2nd, 198-

The dreams have progressed. Now I wake the whole house screaming. Father sent me to a shrink. He says I suffer from anxiety and had decided to take the liberty of prescribing pills to calm my nerves. I know they won't help me, they just put me to sleep where I see him. I wish I had ended him when I had the chance."

The entries went on, more of her dreams of Jareth and the Labyrinth, becoming shorter with more time in between. Toby closed the book and sighed. In less than two minutes he had learned more than he wanted to know about Sarah. He began to wonder if her claims of this other world and this Jareth were true or if she could no longer tell dreams from reality. Either way it was real to her and was the cause of many years of mental turmoil.

Toby turned out the light and retreated back to his room with the diary in tow. He wasn't quite sure of everything but a major puzzle piece had definitely fit into place. He finally understood his sister's fear of this Jareth character. He continued to flip through the pages to look at doodles and half done drawings of all these strange characters from Sarah's imagination. One of these creatures seemed to be a large hairy beast similar to the ones in a favorite childrens book they shared. Another looked like a mini version of Smith, the local Irish Pub owner who was good friends with his parents. He continued leafing through the book as he came across one sketch that looked familiar. It was the man from the dream. His hair was wild and untamed, eyes looking down into three crystal balls he held in one hand. A chill went up Toby's spine shortly followed by a growl that made him jump. It was his stomach.

He found himself making his way downstairs to stair into the pantry that was only half stocked. The only thing that sounded half way appetizing was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. No crust. As he gathered the jar and bread he heard a slight wheezing coming from behind him. He was startled at the sight he found once turned around. Standing behind him was a three foot tall man with a large nose that took up half of his face. His skin was a leathery brown color with crows feet and wrinkles that made Toby wonder if they each represented a year of his age. If this were true, this short man in his kitchen would be a hundred years old. Atleast.


End file.
